


Public Displays

by TheBasilRathbone



Category: Broadchurch, Secret Diary of a Call Girl (TV)
Genre: Dirty Brian - Freeform, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Functional Relationships, Romance, Supportive Ellie, The Actual Girlfriend Experience, just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24746569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBasilRathbone/pseuds/TheBasilRathbone
Summary: Hannah shows up to the CID for an unexpected lunch date with Alec. Alec is surprised that she's come all the way from London just to see him. His co-workers are surprised that he's pulled a girl like Hannah.
Relationships: Hannah Baxter/Alec Hardy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 53





	Public Displays

The click of her stilettos agains the linoleum floors immediately begins to turn heads. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t get a small thrill from that, the lingering stares as she strode down the halls.

She’d also be lying if she said she hadn’t dressed up for just that reason.

A well-tailored skirt, a red blouse with a bow at the neck, her hair teased and swept up in a ponytail. It’s the daytime version of her best ‘girlfriend experience’ outfit, a little inside joke with herself. Just because she’s forgone the fake lashes and dark makeup doesn’t mean she’s given up all her work ways. She’d learned too many tricks of the trade during her time in sex work to throw it all out the window.

If she had turned heads in London, she was dropping jaws in a small town like this.

“‘Scuse me,” she breathes, tilting her head and smiling sweetly at the curly-haired man in a polo shirt coming down the hallway towards her. “Can you tell me where I might find DI Hardy?”

Some men are very smooth when encountering beautiful women, instant flirts, smouldering looks.

This is not one of those men.

“Hardy?” he stammers, eyes trained on her body, taking an uncomfortably long time to climb up to her face. He doesn’t even respond, just turns to gesture vaguely to some unknown spot further down the hall.

Thanks…” Hannah smiles again, glancing down at the little security card clipped to his belt. “…Brian.” She ducks around him and continues to click down the hall, trying to hide her smile as she feels his eyes on her back, and arse, as she goes.

Alec is there, standing in the middle of the cluster of desks, clutching a mug and leaning over the shoulder of another detective, eyes trained on her computer screen. He has his glasses perched on the end of his nose as he reads. ‘Old man Hardy,’ she calls this look, much to his disapproval.

“Am I interrupting?” she asks pointedly, loud enough to get his attention, as well as the attention of most of the other busy officers milling about.

“Hannah,” he says incredulously, straightening up quickly. God, he looks like he hasn’t slept in an age. Hasn’t eaten, either. Poor thing. “What're you doin' here?”

His expression is unreadable, like the good cop he is. “It’s been ages. Thought I’d surprise you.” For one sickening moment, she feels a sweep of nausea. Oh God, maybe this was some horrible mistake. Maybe none of this was what she thought it was, maybe she was only ever supposed to be a dirty little secret, not a girlfriend. Not in front of his friends and colleagues. They hadn’t talked about it, not really, but she thought it had been clear. “Have…have I overstepped?”

Much to her relief, his expression softens. Just minutely, but she knows him well. “‘Course not,” he says with a little jerk of his head. A sign of approval. “Wasn’ expectin’ you in a police station, is all. Had me worried.”

“Oh, you know I’m far too clever to get myself arrested,” she teases at his joke, falling easily into her old bravado, making her way across the room to greet him. Nothing too scandalous, he was a private man, but she couldn’t resist kissing his cheek, resting a hand on his hip. Were he the blushing type, she knew his cheeks would be red at the display. “Is this tea?” she asks brightly, plucking the mug from his hands and lifting it to her lips.

“I wouldn’t,” the detective at her desk next to them warns, breaking out of her stunned silence. “He’s been microwaving that same cup all morning.”

“Ugh.” Hannah wrinkles her nose, immediately lowering the cup and handing it back to Alec. She smiles at the women. “Thanks for the heads up.”

The women looks back and forth between her and Alec, grinning mischievously. “I’m Ellie, by the way.”

“Oh, Miller! I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Hannah.”

They shake hands. “Interesting,” Ellie muses. “I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you.”

Hannah feigns a sound of scandal. “What, Alec Hardy? Not sharing details about his personal life?”

Ellie grins wolfishly at that, leaning back in her chair to size up Alec. “Oh, I _like_ her.”

Alec looks disgruntled. “I don’ like the two o’ you knowin’ one another.”

“Good, then take me to lunch?” Hannah begs, wrapping an arm around his waist. Oh, he really had lost weight, and he hadn’t had any extra to begin with. She can feel the protruding bone of his hip against her fingers. Hannah bats her eyelashes. “I’ve come all this way…”

He gives her a guilty look, glancing back towards whatever is up on Ellie’s computer screen. “The case-“

“-can wait,” Ellie finishes, crossing her arms over her chest. “There’s nothing left to be done right now except wait for the lab results to come in, and you being here isn’t going to get that done any faster. Go to lunch, I’ll check in with the shop owner.”

Hannah feels the muscles in his back relax beneath her palm. “You sure?”

“Go,” Ellie smiles. “Nice to see I’m not the only one nagging you about eating once in a bloody while.”

Alec rolls his eyes at that, but squeezes Hannah’s arm gently. “Jus’ let me grab my wallet.”

“Just your coat. Lunch is my treat.” She lets him slid away from her side, ducking into his office. Hannah notices, then, that the office has grown a lot quieter since she’d arrived, with officers pretending to work, though they kept glancing over their computer screens to watch. She pretends not to notice, brushing her fringe away from her face and smiling at Ellie.

“Really is nice to finally meet you,” Hannah tells her. “I hope I haven’t embarrassed Alec by coming here.”

Ellie scoffs. “Only Hardy would be embarrassed by having a beautiful woman surprise him for a lunch date. He just knows we’ll all tease him relentlessly about it afterwards, it’s nothing to do with you. _Believe_ me.”

Oh, she really, really does like Ellie. Hannah desperately hopes she’s right, that she hasn’t fucked up royally by coming here unannounced, introducing herself to his colleagues without his prior consent.

“Do you live in London? Here I thought Hardy was going up so often just to visit Daisy at uni.”

“Oh, he does that, too. Sometimes I think he’s only with me because staying in my flat is cheaper than getting a hotel room in London every time he wants to visit her,” Hannah jokes, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Ellie lifts her own mug of coffee to her lips, an obvious bid not to hide a smirk. “Something tells me that’s not the only reason.”

He appears by her side again, wearing the well-tailored coat she had bought for him a few months’ back, hands thrust into the pockets. She grins at him, playfully tugging on the lapels. “So, where are you taking me?”

He snorts. “This is Broadchurch, not London. You’ve got your choice of the pub, or…the other pub. Or the chip shop down the street.”

“Hey,” Ellie protests, gargling around her mouthful of coffee. “We have an Italian restaurant!”

“‘Italian’ may be pushing it. It’s a restaurant that serves pasta,” Alec replies with a withering look.

Hannah laughs, sliding her hands down to rest on the crook of his elbow, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I’m _ravenous_. If it serves food, I'm all yours.”

Alec turns his withering look to her, his _I know you’re showing off_ look, and she smirks back. He can act shy all he likes, she knows he likes it when she makes a display in public. Because, at the end of the day, he knows he’s the one who gets to take her home.

And really, she likes that he can see right through her. Part of what made her such a good call girl was her ability to put on a show, act the part, be whoever a man needed her to be in that moment. It’s when shit got real that her relationships tended to fall apart. ‘It’s like you’re an entirely different person now,’ they would accuse. But Alec, bloody good detective that he was, saw right through the bullshit. It had been unnerving, at first, how well he could read her. Being emotionally vulnerable was a bitch after playing a part for so long. She barely remembered how to be. Sexy, naughty nights were all well and good, but sometimes he would still her hips, holding her tightly against him. _Han,_ he’d murmur. _I jus’ need_ you _tonight._ Which meant no act, no need to impress, no ‘girlfriend experience.’ It meant joggers and bare feet, eating takeaway on the sofa. Soft, easy sex in the bedroom at a reasonable hour. It’s so loving and domestic she bores herself, sometimes.

“Sorry to cause such a fuss,” she says sweetly, though she’s not one bit sorry. “I know you’re working a case. I just thought if I rang ahead, you’d tell me not to come. Thought I could seduce you away from the office with food.”

“With _food,”_ Ellie chuckles, ignoring Alec’s glare.

“Forget the food. I jus’ need to get away from these lot for an hour.”

Hannah grins, tugging him at the elbow until he’s following her down the hall towards the entrance. Once they’re out of the immediate line of vision of the busy office space, Hannah rests her temple against Alec’s shoulder, beaming when she feels the press of his lips against the top of her head.

“I don’t know why you complain about them so much, your co-workers seem lovely,” she tells him, squeezing his elbow.

He grunts. “They’re lovely to _you._ M’never goin’ to hear the end o’ this.”

Hannah sighs. “I really am sorry if I’ve…overstepped. I didn’t mean to make it such a thing, I just wanted to surprise you.”

He pulls his arm out of her grasp and then slips it around her waist. “Don’ apologise. Didn’ mean to be an arse. Jus’…been a long few days. I was surprised yer here, not unhappy. Really, been achin’ to see you.”

“You’ve been _aching,_ have you?” she asks gleefully, fingertip skimming along the waistline of his trousers, ignoring the disapproving rumble in his chest.

“Han,” he warns. “I’m already gonna be taunted by the lot o' them, I can’t make it any worse by bein’ gone for far longer than I should.”

“Ooo. How long were you thinking, exactly?”

“Don’ tempt me,” he grumbles, and she grins again, pulling him down to kiss the corner of his mouth.

"So that's a 'no' to a quick shag in your car after lunch, then?"

Had she known him any less, she might have been cowed by the unimpressed look he gives her. She notices he has made no attempt to reject the offer of a quickie. “An’ don’ pretend you didn’ dress up today to make a scene.” 

Always the detective, he just couldn’t let things go. “You know, most men would just be happy having their pretty girlfriend show up and whisk him off to lunch. Leave it to you to analyse it," she pouts.

“That’s the problem,” Alec accuses with a little smirk. “Nobody’ll believe yer willingly datin’ me. They’ll all think that I'm-“

“-paying for it?” Hannah finishes. She hates how self-deprecating he is. A kind, honest man with a stable profession, no unmanageable skeletons in his closet, and who was relatively unfazed by her previous profession? And, as an added bonus, the sex is good, if not a little vanilla. But she’s been working on it, with a surprising degree of success. The ‘Worst Cop in Britain’ criticism really did a number on him, not to mention his ex-wife. She wouldn’t admit it to him, but it might be another reason why she went with such a display today. To show everyone at work that Alec Hardy was the type of man that could _pull._

“Han, I didn’ mean-“

“Paying for it,” she tuts again, turning to face him with a wolfish grin. Hannah presses her back against the front door of the CID. He’s walking at such a pace that he nearly runs right into her, and she takes the opportunity to put her palm against his chest, swirling her hand around his tie and pulling him in for a kiss. “At my rates? Oh, Sweetheart. You couldn’t afford it.”


End file.
